The residents of an apartment building were recently left shocked after they tried to leave their homes only to find that they were stuck – because the stairs were gone!

Emergency services were called to the scene of the Maple Walk Apartments in Decatur, Georgia. There, they had the task of freeing the residents that lived on the higher floors of the building.

According to the residents, some of them had received letters stating that emergency repairs needed to be made to the stairs. And that therefore, hotel costs would be reimbursed for the duration of time that the tenants needed to vacate the premises.

However, according to these residents, the stairs were removed abruptly with no prior warning. Shawnta Tiller, a resident of the building, stated: “They gave us no notice.”

“No nothing.”

She told WSB-TV, “they were already taking the stairs down when we got the notice this morning.”

Neighbour Andre Williams added: “this is crazy.”

“How can you cut off access to the stairs and everybody’s in their apartments?”

The residents were eventually rescued from the building though when a passing by reporter called the fire brigade to come and help.